USF neuroscientist wins $3.5-million Jacob Javits Award from NIH
Tampa, FL (March 22, 2004) -- A University of South Florida neuroscientist who studies how nerve cell networks regulate breathing has been awarded a highly competitive Jacob Javits Investigator Award by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), National Institutes of Health. Bruce Lindsey, PhD, professor and chairman of Physiology and Biophysics at the USF College of Medicine, is the first researcher in the university's history to receive this merit award.
The award was established by the U.S. Congress in 1983 to honor the late Sen. Jacob Javits, who suffered from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a degenerative neurological disorder also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. Awardees must have a track record of excellence and productivity in an area of neurological research supported by NINDS, submit a proposal of the highest scientific merit, and be judged highly likely to continue their outstanding work for the award's conditional seven-year period.
The $3.5-million grant, which begins in April, will support Dr. Lindsey and his seven-member research team, including co-investigators Kendall Morris, PhD, and Sarah Nuding, PhD.
"Dr. Lindsey's award is a demonstration that faculty at USF can compete for the very highest level of achievement in their field," said USF Vice President for Research M. Ian Phillips, PhD, DSc.
"I am particularly impressed by Dr. Lindsey's Javits award because while he spent two years as interim Vice President for Research, he never let the strength and vigor of his research program diminish."
Dr. Lindsey and his colleagues use computer-based simulations and electrophysiological recordings to investigate how clusters of nerve cells in the brainstem, or base of the brain, regulate breathing and blood pressure. With the aid of sophisticated computer graphics programs and techniques they have refined or created, they can monitor the activity of as many as 70 neurons simultaneously. Understanding the complex circuitry of how these cells interconnect will help scientist explain how breathing rhythms adjust as lung function varies with activity and disease. The research could ultimately help in developing better evaluations and treatments for disorders associated with breathing disruptions, including sleep apnea, hypertension, sudden infant death syndrome and stroke.
"Dr. Lindsey's laboratory is one of a few with expertise in this highly technical experimental approach to recording the collective action of brainstem neurons," said Daofen Chen, PhD, program director of Channels, Synapses and Circuits Research at NINDS. In addition to providing long-term support for Dr. Lindsey's innovative research, the award recognizes his long history of community service on grant review panels and as a reviewer for scientific journals, Dr. Chen said.
Dr. Lindsey, who joined USF in 1977, has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health for the last 19 years. His lab has been a training ground for medical students, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows - including those who have gone on to positions at Harvard University, Georgetown University and Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Neuroscience.
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Responding to demand from Tampa's community leaders, the University of South Florida College of Medicine was established by the Florida Legislature in 1965. Part of the USF Health Sciences Center, doctors and researchers were awarded nearly $88 million in grants and contracts last year. Providing advanced medical care, USF Physicians Group at the College of Medicine is the largest doctor group in West Central Florida offering expert medical care throughout Tampa Bay's finest hospitals such as Tampa General Hospital, James A. Haley Veterans' Hospital, Moffitt Cancer Center and All Children's Hospital. With a reputation for training high performing clinical physicians, the College is proud that more than half of its physician-graduates remain in Florida to practice medicine.